Archive for February 2015

As I approach my last years, I wanted to add to some of what I have put on this site in the past. As I proceed in years, I expected to find some things clearer and many things to be as confusing as always. I still often (but less so) question things which have no answers–something which Merton told me fifty five years ago to stop doing since it was useless. I still cannot accept all the suffering in this world and how some people have to face so much of it and others almost none at all. Aside from that conundrum let me proceed with a few, hopefully not too confusing, thoughts.

I believe quite seriously that one of this world’s worst curses was the establishment of organized religion. While many have some very worthy adherents, mostly these organizations have denigrated the people in this incredible creation to the point of leading to the horrible torture and deaths of an infinite number of innocents. My somewhat vague remembrance is that Yeshua (Jesus) said in one of the Apocrypha that ‘one has everything within that will lead to the Other’. On the other hand, the RC’s have a new pope, Francis, who seems to be somewhat on the right track in a few areas, though raising the pope before him to sainthood was not one of them. Still I wish him well. (He was right on John XXIII.)

As I age I have come to more clearly understand Merton’s description of prayer as just breathing. The time of words, petitions , grumpiness seems to be over and the incredible beauty of the predawn silence, hearing the first bird peep of the day, is a most wonderful prayer. All it takes is making the time, keeping your big mouth shut and your mind blank.

A certain quiet kind of joy is almost always present sometime during the day now, and what more of a gift could a person ask for? The sadness surrounding the suffering of friends, relatives, the poor and lowly of the world still affects me but the positivity goes on. A good bit of laughing should always be in your life. Without this life is not worth living .